How To Make Saline Solution Slime Recipe

We are all over slime here. The latest slime craze has sparked tons of cool ideas, but we love to share simple slime recipes that are easy for all of you to create at home or even in the classroom. Let’s learn how to make saline solution slime! Because slime is science, and chemistry is cool!

HOW TO MAKE SALINE SOLUTION SLIME WITH KIDS

We have a whole bunch of neat slime recipes to check out, and I am sure you will find this is another awesome slime recipe to add to your files! Find the recipe for our newest saline solution slime below! The videos are a must watch!

You may have seen our fluffy slime, and if you haven’t, it’s a must see! Our fluffy slime recipe an this saline slime recipe are very similar minus one ingredient.

We LOVE slime!

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE HOMEMADE SLIME RECIPE

What’s the science behind the slime? The borate ions in the starch {or borax powder or boric acid} mixes with the PVA {polyvinyl-acetate} glue and forms this cool stretchy substance. This is called cross linking!

The glue is a polymer and is made up of long, repeating, and identical strands or molecules. These molecules with flow past one another keeping the glue in a liquid state.

The addition of water is important to this process. Think about when you leave a gob of glue out, and you find it hard and rubbery the next day.

When you add the borate ions to the mixture, it starts to connect these long strands together. They begin to tangle and mix until the substance is less like the liquid you started with and is thicker and rubberier like slime!

HOMEMADE SLIME RECIPE STEP BY STEP

STEP 1: First, measure 1/2 cup of glue and pour into your bowl. Here we are using clear glue for a very bright translucent style slime!

STEP 2: To that, add 1/2 cup of water and mix the two ingredients together.

STEP 3: Once the two are well mixed, it’s time to add color and glitter. Here we used about 10 drops of red food coloring and a several good shakes of glitter. Don’t be shy with the glitter!

Make sure to stir well.

The next two steps are important to the forming of the slime itself.

STEP 4: Add a 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to the mixture and mix it in. This helps the slime firm up a bit more and create a solid.

STEP 5: Then you will add one tablespoon of saline solution to the whole mixture. Make sure that your saline solution contains both boric acid and sodium borate for the best slime activation.

STEP 6: Let’s mix! Whip up your slime mixture in no time. You need to stir fast like you are trying to really whip up something! If it still feels loose, you can squirt a bit of solution into the bowl.

The slime will begin to form immediately thanks to the mixture of boric acid and sodium borate that is present in the saline solution. These two ingredients are cross linking agents that create your slime.

STEP 7: The final step is to knead your slime. Once the slime looks like it is pulling away from the sides and bottom of the bowl nicely, it’s time to pick it up.

Add glue, water, food coloring, and glitter to your bowl and mix well to combine all the ingredients!

Be generous with the glitter but a little bit of color goes a long way with clear glue. If you have to use white glue but want rich colors like this red slime, you will need a lot more food coloring!

Baking soda helps to firm the slime. The saline solution is the slime activator and helps the slime to get it’s rubbery texture!

You really have to give this slime a fast stir to activate the mixture. But it will happen quick enough and you will notice the volume of your mixture changes as you whip it up.

This slime comes together so fast and it is so much fun to play with too. Once you have made your batch of slime and checked out the science behind the slime, have fun with this cool sensory play material too.

Slime is awesome for tactile sensory play, but make sure to wash hands and surfaces after making and playing with slime.

Now you know how to make saline solution slime that is also super stretchy!

Comments

This glitter slime recipe does not work at all!! We have tried this 5 different times and the minute we add baking soda it turns to liquid. My child is beyond disappointed as we have wasted glue and glitter. We tried 2 different glues, clear and white. Horrible….thanks for wasting my money.

Lisa, Had the slime formed before you added the baking soda? We have used this recipe so many times, but I am not sure what you are experiencing. Please email me at [email protected] for additional help.

You are welcome to email me and we can over the recipe! I make this slime weekly and I have no issues. Let’s double check the ingredients in your saline solution! You also really need to mix everything together well. I would love to help you but let’s be friendly about it.

You have to make sure your saline contains the correct ingredients. The reason it worked when you used the detergent is probably because of the sodium borate in it. Does your saline have that ingredient?

We Loved this recipe! I did add quite a bit more baking soda so that it would not stick to my kiddos’ hands but otherwise it was a super hit! I think it may be one of those activities that I add to our 1st grade curriculum (solids and liquids). Thanks for sharing!

I have tried this recipe several times and we end up with a slime that is too rigid. From the replies and comments I have read it sounds like I need to add more baking soda to the slime to get it more stretchable?

Make sure to double check all your measurements and try a 2nd batch. Your solution should be a mixture of sodium borate and boric acid. Did you add the water? Baking soda is used to make the slime thicker, so I am not sure adding more is the solution.

Put your slime into a sink with water in it, and put some soap. Wait for like 10 second stop and start playing with it in the water, take it out the water and keep kneaded! It will stretched like no tomorrow!

Just made this recipe for the first time and it turned out perfect. My daughter is having a blast and is so happy. This is the 2nd contact solution recipe we have tried and this one is so much better. Now I can’t count the times we attempted to make slime with borax before we discovered the contact solution. We store it in empty play doh containers and the last batch lasted about 2 months. I think to add to the beautiful glittery blue slime we just made, that she just named blue beauty. Lol we will make purple.

My son did the glitter slime with his 3.5 year old niece. She loved it. I bought the glitter already in the glue. I have not done this project in over 15 yrs. I forgot how gross it felt but boy did it bring back memories with and his siblings.

Ours didn’t work either. There’s sodium borate in my saline solution but not boric acid. Does it need both or just one or the other? I’m off to the store for more saline solution to hopefully salvage the FOUR bowls of glittery colored liquid I currently have sitting on my counter.

Ours didn’t work either. I used elmers clear glue, followed the recipe to a “T” and I have FOUR bowls of glittery colored liquid on my counter. The saline solution I used was OptiFree and contains sodium borate, but not boric acid. Does it need both, or just one or the other? I’m hoping to salvage this yet!

We just made it this morning and it was brilliant! We used Elmer’s glitter glue (it’s already mixed with the glitter) and it made it that much easier. Once the saline is added it’s much easier to mix with your hands. Also, after you wash your hands, the slime doesn’t stick so much. My boys are delighted and playing with it now. Thank you!

It may be due to your particular climate. If it’s still staying together in a nice slime, just drain off the water. If you are keeping it in a closed container, condensation will form. You can keep it partially covered and see how that works for you.

I live in Pennsylvania, USA and work with a child care center. Our slime came out great but it weeps liquid when not used. Our liquid comes from the slime itself not from from the top of the lid.This is a double batch in the same container and we have poured off at least 3-5 tablespoons of liquid in the last 24hours! Do you consider this condensation? One of my students recall a video saying it has to be kept in the frig when not in use. Do you do this at all?

On occasion I have had this happen but very rarely. I have several batches that have been sitting out for the last week and this has not happened. I have never kept slime in the fridge. I don’t know what caused it on the rare occasion it happened. The last time it happened was when I was making the monster slime. I made 4 batches all at the same time, put them each in there own container, and one had that issue. It was odd but hasn’t happened since! Let me know if it happens again!

Just made this with my daughter and it worked really well! Other recipes called for hot water and took longer so I was happy to find this recipe. We used Elmer’s clear glue, some old baking soda from our fridge (I forgot to buy a box when I got the glue…), Target brand saline solution and some water based acrylic paint instead of food dye. My daughter said she heard in a YouTube video that you could use paint to color slime so we tried it. It was our first time making slime so I’m not sure how it should have come out but we got something that is super slimy and my daughter was satisfied 🙂

Jus made this with my daughter because in Canada liquid starch is unavailable. t was too sticky, so we added a lot more baking soda and then it worked out fine. The only thing is that my skin was quite irritated after, and a small welt appeared on my wrist. My daughter was fine though so perhaps I am just sensitive to chemicals. However I’m a bit concerned as I want to use this as a party activity for my daughter’s friends. I may just aske them all to wear latex gloves. If you have sensitive skin, I recommend wearing some kind of hand protection while handling the slime!

Oh boy! Yes gloves might be best then. This is probably the most sensitive of all the recipes due to the fact that you use it wash contact lenses. Please do what you feel is best. There may be a difference in the products in Canada Vs. US too.

It clumps in a ball when added to the mixture? I haven’t experienced that before. This might be a silly question but have you tried sprinkling it over the surface and slowly incorporating it. You also need to add it before the contact solution. I like to add it when I add the food coloring.

Excellent recipe, best I’ve tried. Thank you so much for going to the trouble of sharing it with us all. Any tips on how to store the slime? Right now I have it in a small plastic jar. How long does it keep? Thanks again!!!

Awesome recipe!! We made 4 batches with white glue adding different glitter and halloween confetti! I’m not sure why other people are having problems, I used the Elmer’s white school glue, added the water and stirred, added the color and glitter then added the baking soda and mixed, and used the contact solution I already have for my contacts. We made all 4 in less than 15 minutes. Thank you for sharing!

I just made a giant batch of this slime. Used my KitchenAid mixer to mix it. It turned out very well.. I used Elmer’s school glue. I put my food coloring in the water before I mixed it with the glue. As it was mixing, I sprinkled the baking soda in and let it mix thoroughly. I used WalMart’s Equate brand saline solution for sensitive eyes. I poured the saline in while it was mixing. I turned the speed up a little as it came together. No problems at all!! Thank you for posting this!!

This recipe is the best one we have tried thus far so not to resort to actual borax…. you must mix vigorously, im talking like making whipped cream by hand type whipping! Also, as noted in the science notes within the recipe it’s super important that the saline solution contain boric acid and sodium borate for the desired slime effect. …

lThis slime recipe os soooo great i made like ten batches in only 12mins i poured the glue then water then glitter then food colouring then the baking soda an then the saline solutoin (i added contact solutoin ,shaving cream and loiton aswell to make it feel better and fluffy) it feels soo good!!!!!!!!!!☺ITSSS SOOO FLLLUUFFYY IIIMMM GGOOONNAAAA
DIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE3EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

RECIPE WAS A WASTE OF MONEY!!! I live in Singapore where Elmer’s glue is three times what it costs in the US. When you write a recipe, please be clearer. No where in your recipe do you state what needs to be in contact solution. I grabbed what was cheapest not knowing I had to read for specific ingredients.
My kids are really ticked off at me and I’m erked.
What SPECIFIC brand of solution do you recommend? Is there more than one?

I just watched the attached video and looked at the recipe again, apologies, you do have specifics of solution. However, the video calls for baking powder while your recipe says baking soda. Which is it?

Sorry you seem so angry. Did you click the link under supplies to see what brand we use? Make sure that the solution contains some form of borons like boric acid or sodium borate. I have since updated the recipe. Thank you for pointing it out.

Followed the instructions to a T… did not work as advertised. Added alittle more baking soda and the correct contact solution in small increments. Finally got a decent slime. My 3 year old was satified but my wife and I were not. Other ingredients are much simpler and call for 1/2 TBS of baking soda & 1 1/2 TBS of contact solution.

Yes it’s 1/2 tsp of baking soda and about a tablespoon of contact solution. I made it exactly this way this morning. Make sure to check the active ingredients on your saline solution if you aren’t getting good results.

Making the slime is fine and is great fun, my child can play with it, however after about 30+mins or storing it for longer periods of time (overnight) in an air tight container at room temp it starts to lose water, when i open the container there is a lot of water surrounding the slime, it also changes consistency and not be as stretchy and tears a lot easier than being elastic as it originally was.

Is it normal to have that much water come out of it? I can just drain the water but is there something I’m doing wrong in the making of it? Not sure what I’m doing wrong to cause this to happen.

This is not a usual occurrence. It may have to do with climate but I am not sure. I have had this happen once with my monster eyes slime but I also had 3 other containers sitting out with the same recipe and nothing happened to them. What color was the slime?

I made the recipe with my 3 year old today, it was our first time and it came out great but we did have to add a little more of the lenses cleansing solution. I wish I could post a picture! We are making more tomorrow, it kept her entertained for a long time, so that’s a win on my book. I used the white Elmer’s glue because that’s what we had handy, the color is less bright but still pretty.

That’s awesome to here! Yes, depending on the solution you could need a bit more but a tablespoon is a good place to start. I suggest squeezing some onto your hands when kneading it to help reduce the stickiness.

I made this with my granddaughter and it worked perfectly AND very quickly! We used the Equate brand of Saline Solution for sensitive eyes and it had sodium chloride in it. Worked beautifully and she is one happy little girl.

CAn you add sparkly things after you make clear slime? I want to put small dishes of glitter, sequins, food color, etc so that kids can make choices of what they want to add to their bag of clear slime.

I am sorry to be replying on someone’s question but I can’t find a comment button on this post?

The slime recipe worked great! We stored it in an airtight container and the next morning it was no longer slime, but had a thin layer of liquid on top and was no longer stretchy. Any suggestions to fix it?

I’m hearing this a lot more now and I need to figure out a good answer because this doesn’t seem to happen to us. What type of container are you storing it in? Feel free to email me or message on Facebook to discuss.

I find that when I make slime it fails anyways but I measured everything quite nicely this time and I don’t know if I’m using the right saline solution but I did measure everything properly and it still didn’t work!

I tried the” Elmers” recipe from their website and got a ball of something half way in between slime and silly putty. Then i found little bin, and tried your recipe, and it worked perfectly the first time. It’s pretty wet though, and keeps leaking water into the bowl that my daughter is using to mix it in and play with it in. Any suggestion why it is so wet? I followed the instructions for the order and about of the ingredients to be mixed together.

[…] Our favorite Halloween colors with little spooky accessories is perfect for the season. We used the saline solution slime recipe here. Both the borax and liquid starch recipes will work well too. Read the full post for our […]

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Recipe Rating

We LOVE science! We LOVE Slime, and we LOVE all things STEM related. Join us on our journey to discover just how cool science can be. Want to know how to get started? Click on any of the images or menu options!